(1)

Foot and mouth disease is an infectious viral disease affecting animals in the mammal order of Artiodactyla and can have a severe impact on the concerned animal population and the profitability of farming causing disturbance to movements of consignments of those animals and products thereof within the Union and exports to third countries.

(2)

In the event of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in animals of listed species, there is a serious risk of the spread of that disease to other establishments keeping animals of listed species.

(3)

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/687 (2) supplements the rules for the control of the listed diseases referred to in Article 9(1), points (a), (b) and (c), of Regulation (EU) 2016/429, and defined as category A, B and C diseases in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1882 (3). In particular, Articles 21 and 22 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/687 provide for the establishment of a restricted zone in the event of an outbreak of a category A disease, including foot and mouth disease, and for certain measures to be applied therein. Article 21(1) of that Delegated Regulation provides that the restricted zone is to comprise a protection zone, a surveillance zone, and, if necessary, further restricted zones around or adjacent to the protection and surveillance zones.

(4)

Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2025/87 (4) was adopted on the basis of Regulation (EU) 2016/429, and it lays down certain interim emergency measures relating to infection with foot and mouth disease virus in Germany in response to the outbreak confirmed on 10 January 2025 in the federal state of Brandenburg, close to that state’s border with the federal state of Berlin. More particularly, Implementing Decision (EU) 2025/87 provides that the protection and surveillance zones to be established by Germany in the federal state of Brandenburg, in accordance with Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/687, following that outbreak are to comprise at least the areas listed in the Annex to that Implementing Decision.

(5)

The size of the protection and surveillance zones as well as the duration of the measures to apply therein have been based on the criteria laid down in Article 64(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/429 and on the rules laid down in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/687, including the epidemiological situation as regards foot and mouth disease in the areas affected by that disease and the overall epidemiological situation in Germany as regards that disease, as well as the level of risk for its further spread. The duration of the measures takes into account the international standards of the Terrestrial Animal Health Code of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).

(6)

In order to prevent any unnecessary disturbance to trade within the Union and to avoid unjustified barriers to trade by third countries, it is necessary to rapidly define at Union level the restricted zones for foot and mouth disease, which comprises the protection and surveillance zones in the federal states of Berlin and Brandenburg in Germany in collaboration with that Member State.

(7)

Given the urgency arising from the epidemiological situation in Germany as regards the spread of foot and mouth disease and the need to prevent the disease spreading from the affected establishment in Germany to other parts of that Member State and to other Member States or third countries, it is appropriate that the measures laid down in this Implementing Decision apply as soon as possible.

(8)

Taking into account the current epidemiological situation in the Union as regards foot and mouth disease, this Decision should apply until 11 February 2025.

(9)

The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed,

(a)

restricted zones, which comprise protection and surveillance zones are established immediately by the competent authority of that Member State in accordance with Article 21 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/687, and under the conditions laid down in that Article;

(b)

the protection and surveillance zones referred to in point (a) comprise at least the areas listed in the Annex to this Decision;

(c)

the measures required to be applied in the protection and surveillance zones, are applied at least until the dates listed in the Annex to this Decision.